Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Whenever it’s time for the traveling vet to visit, it turns into a doggy rodeo around here, and today was the day…a day I always dread.

Because we have three dogs, it’s easier to bring the vet to the house than it is to take each dog into town and sit with them in the waiting room while they shiver and slobber all over. They still shiver and slobber, but they only do it for the few minutes they are actually getting poked, prodded and injected, not all during the trip and while waiting to get in to see the vet.

Cricket and Bonnie are finished rather quickly, but since Belle is too big to carry out to the van, we corner her in the house, tackle her and then hold her down so the vet and her assistants can come inside to administer to her. Of course, she always leaves a puddle when you catch her, so we try to make sure she is on the tile when we catch her.

After receiving her scheduled treatment, we have the vet clean her ears. Some Shar-Pei’s have strange corkscrew-like ear canals that are extremely difficult to clean, so we prefer to let the experts do it instead of possibly hurting her. This process takes three of us about twenty minutes, and when done, we’re covered with hair, slobber, and the cleaning liquid she shakes from her ears. All this time, we’re sitting or kneeling on hard tile, and I’m too danged old to take that for very long.

All the dogs checked out healthy this time, so now we can relax for a few months before their rabies shots are due again.

If anyone wonders why we love Shar Pei's, this should give you an idea. How could you not love something that looks so goofy?

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The week of rain we just experienced brought a crop of mushrooms like I've never seen before. Most are Fairy Rings, and in places the entire lawn is white with them. A few brown ones are also popping up in places, but I have no idea what variety they are.

I don't enjoy eating mushrooms, so I have no interest in picking them. Tomorrow, or Monday, they get mowed along with the recuperating grass. That should spread enough spores to grow a serious crop next year. Maybe I can get an agricultural tax exemption for our acre of mushrooms.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Last Friday morning, after putting off watering because of the daily promises of thundershowers, I began dragging hoses around to water our parched St. Augustine lawn. That afternoon, It began raining and dumped over two inches before it temporarily stopped. Saturday evening, it began again and has been raining off and on ever since. We've now accumulated over seven inches and the forecast is for three more days of showers before it clears up. Just north of here, they have had over eleven inches. After so long without rain, I'm not going to complain.

When the dozens of hummingbirds left a couple of weeks ago, I thought we were pretty much done feeding for the year. For several days, a half-dozen birds were all that visited our feeders, and that's typical of what we've experienced in the past. Then one day, we suddenly had dozens of birds again and it's been like that for over a week. I've been making a gallon of sugar water every day and some days I've had to make more than one. I think they are waiting out the rain and the southerly winds before continuing their migration. When the wind switches to the north again, I suppose this big batch of birds will leave too.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Once again, the media fails to do their job as there was almost no coverage of the 9-12 rally in Washington. In the few places it was covered, there was no effort to discover the reasons that perhaps a million people showed up to register their displeasure. The spin artists blame it on two things…the health care bill and racism. What a bunch of idiots! If they honestly can’t understand what’s happening, they are in for a rude awakening.

Even our moderately conservative daily newspaper put nothing on the front page of the Sunday paper and had only a short AP regurgitation on page 5A. That irked me enough to fire off a letter to the editor that I know won’t be published!

Here are some photos of what the liberal bloggers said was a few thousand angry old people. One even said that the reason the crowd looked bigger was because the Park Service had given a permit for a black family to have a reunion in the same area. Who are you going to believe, the libs and their media buddies, or your lying eyes?

They had better pay special attention to the sign shown in the last picture.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Hooray, we have access to the Internet again…and what a frustrating several days it’s been!

Over a week ago, Judy decided to take advantage of an advertised offer to use an online computer backup service, without charge, for a month. It didn’t occur to her that uploading everything that was on her computer might put us over the usage limit for our satellite Internet contract…but it sure did.

To make a long story short, the satellite company…Wildblue…slowed down our access and periodically shut us down. This is supposed to happen until our usage averages below the maximum allowed. Thinking it would take a couple of days, we waited it out, but nothing improved.

Finally, I called the company and asked how long it would be, and they said it could be October 6th before our service returned to normal! That is the day our 30-day moving average is next calculated. After I regained consciousness, I told her that we couldn’t wait that long and that we would have to cancel their service and sign up with their competition. Those were the magic words. They reinstated our service and gave us a free month, along with their apologies. Not only that, but since we talked, our service has been faster than it’s ever been since we signed up in 2007.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Saturday, September 5, 2009

The Tea Party Express busses were in Dallas yesterday and an estimated 3,000-4,000 people showed up to greet them and wish them well on their trip to Washington to attend the 912 rally. I heard they actually made the national news, though I didn’t see it.

Their next stop after leaving Dallas was a rest stop along Interstate 30, outside the small town of Mt. Vernon, TX. One of the people on the bus said they expected 10-20 people to show up. As Gomer Pyle would say…Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! There were at least 1,000 of us in the unruly mob. Some folks drove as much as five hours to join us. It was a 45 mile trip for me, but what a nice bunch of people I got to visit with. Some days I listen to the network news and can’t help but be disillusioned, and then I attend one of these events and my faith is renewed again.

Thousands of cars and trucks driving by showed their support by blowing their horns and waving. Texas really has a lot of patriotic people…or right-wing extremists, as the administration prefers to call us.

One of the guys on the bus was black, but we know he was paid by the RNC, because there are no black conservatives, yet he stood on the back of a truck and yelled: “I’m not an African-American, I’m an American!” I think he got the biggest cheer of the day from all the racists that we know populate these events.

I should have had a camera along, as some of the signs were priceless. One person carried a sign that declared that she was a Democrat, but she was fed up with Congress and the President trying to destroy our country.

I wish I could go to Washington for the big tea party, but I guess we'll have to do our protesting here in Texas.

We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce... I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way. Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass, each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot.

Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots. If you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you as to which one of us will need whose help in 15 years. It won’t be us.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

When I went grocery shopping yesterday, I wanted to pick up something from the WalMart garden shop, but when I got there, I found the garden supplies gone and the shelves filled with toys. My God, it’s not even Labor Day and they’re getting ready for Christmas!

Today, I was shopping at Lowes, and found their garden and patio section filled with Halloween junk, including a human-sized witch that moved and cackled. I was so impressed, I wanted to hurl. At least they are two holidays behind WalMart, but since Halloween is still nearly two months away, they’re pushing it too.

That sort of nonsense takes all the fun out the holidays. By the time Christmas arrives, I’m so sick of the pre-season marketing, that all I want is for January 1st to arrive so the winter doldrums can set in. Maybe I'm getting old and crotchety, but that's just the way it is.